Volapük is a constructed language, devised in 1879 by Johann Martin Schleyer, a Roman Catholic priest who was inspired in a dream to create an international language. Schleyer adapted the vocabulary of Volapük mostly from English, supplemented by German, French. and Latin. The grammar of Volapük is regular and relatively simple-surprisingly easier, in fact, than it looks at first. Volapük was the first proposed International Auxiliary Language to enjoy widespread popularity: it is estimated that in 1889, there were some 283 clubs, 25 periodicals in or about Volapük, and 316 textbooks in 25 languages, and that some­where between two hundred thousand and a million people had taken up study of the language. Esperanto, being similar to many European Romance languages, first appeared in 1887, and ultimately proved more popular. Today, the number of people studying Volapük is much lower than once it was, though Internet contacts have enabled Volapük enthusiasts to connect and communicate, and that new community has inspired the re-publication of this book. This Volapük grammar was written entirely in Volapük and was produced after the language reform which took place between 1921 and 1931. It has been out of print for many years, and it is hoped that its re-publication will assist a new generation of Volapük learners in their enjoyment of this unique language.

Arie de Jong’s magnificent German-Volapük Volapük-German dictionary has been out of print for decades. It is of course well known that the popularity of the Volapük language today is nothing like what it was in 1889, but the flame of interest in Volapük has never yet been extinguished. Unfortunately, the lack of availability of a comprehensive dictionary has made it extremely difficult for people interested in Volapük to make progress learning the language; most dictionaries available as reprints, for instance, are in Johann Martin Schleyer’s Volapük Rigik (‘Original Volapük’). But modern learners need a diction­ary which reflects the reforms made in Arie de Jong’s Volapük Nulik (‘New Volapük’, a term which I prefer to Volapük Perevidöl ‘Revised Volapük’ or Volapük Pevotastidöl ‘Reformed Volapük’). The re-publication of Wörterbuch der Weltsprache: Vödabuk Vola­püka is a mile­stone in the history of constructed languages, and will, perhaps, help to keep interest in Volapük alive well into the 21st century. Volapük is a rich and flexible language, endowed with an extensive vocabu­lary. It may have no future as an International Auxiliary Lan­guage, but it nevertheless has both intellectual and aesthetic value, whether for the Esperantist interested in the history of the IAL movement, or simply for the enthusiast who comes to enjoy Volapük for its own sake.